Don't be fooled into believing that this is only a Red State issue. The Dems are pushing austerity nearly as strongly as are the Republicans and don't forget most of the local administrations that evicted our encampments were Democratic, not Republican.

For years, I've been asking a question-
In history, are there any other major lost wars for a totally vanquished cause that are celebrated as glorious?
I have also wondered if Booth gave us the "nasty" reconstruction that seeded modern southern bigotry and insanity
And for the punch line -
would the United States be better off if the southern states DID secede ?
Maybe we can elect Rick Perry as the president of the csa.

I think you mean to say "more American lives lost..." The way it reads right now is patently false. Also, the war was indeed fought with slavery as the main issue. Attempts are often made to convince people it was about states rights, but one of the main reasons South Carolina seceded was because of Pennsylvania exercising its state rights with regard to fugitive slaves (SC thought PA wasn't adhering ardently enough to federal legislation). The confederate slave-owners, standing among the ashes of their oligarchy, crying for their property rights, recieved plenty of sympathy then, and none need be offered now.

Some say the civil war was really a war between the US and the British Empire which took sides with the south, as a divide and conquer strategy against the US. This is why Lincoln used to say that preserving the union was his priority.